Populists at the United Nations
Populists at the United Nations

Author(s): Sandra Destradi
Subject(s): International relations/trade
Published by: Ústav mezinárodních vztahů
Keywords: Populism; Foreign policy
Summary/Abstract: Populist parties and leaders have formed governments all over theworld in recent years. This has raised fears that populists will endup dismantling the so-called liberal international order (LIO) andparalyzing the United Nations (UN). Drawing on a large-N analysisof voting patterns in the UN General Assembly (UNGA), this paperargues that populist governments are indeed more skeptical of theLIO than non-populist ones – but they remain engaged membersof the UN. Populism is reshaping multilateralism from within ratherthan replacing it.Governments committed to multilateralism should treat populistledstates as important (albeit difficult) partners in UN negotiationsrather than dismissing them as spoilers to be isolated.Populist leaders’ aggressive narratives about “elitist” internationalinstitutions are often for domestic consumption. Beyond suchrhetoric, populist governments are often pragmatic in dealing withthe UN, and their bureaucrats are keen to keep continuity in theircountries’ engagement. Thus, UN officials and diplomats shouldfind ways to cultivate forms of discreet, low-visibility cooperationwith the bureaucratic apparatuses of populist-governed countries;for example, they could do so through technical working groupsor expert-level dialogues. Non-populist governments should avoidembracing populist narratives, including those on internationalissues.

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